Talking Green vs. Making Green

By DANNY HAKIM

Published: March 28, 2002

DEARBORN, Mich.—
Before he became chief executive of the Ford Motor Company, William Clay Ford Jr. made a point of joining the environmental camp.

Global warming, he wrote in a citizenship report in 2001, ''stands out from other environmental issues because of its potentially serious consequences and its direct relationship to our industry.''

Global warming? Auto executives talk about cars, golf and every tenth of a percentage point of market share. But they do not speak of global warming, unless prompted, and then often dismiss it as scientifically unproved.

Such statements made Mr. Ford -- a vegetarian, guitar-strumming black belt in tae kwon do -- the Motor City's most outspoken executive on environmental issues.

But since becoming chief executive and gaining operational control of the struggling company last October, Mr. Ford, 44, has muted his pronouncements on such issues and has made decisions that have bitterly disappointed environmentalists.

Many activists are most angry that Mr. Ford, the great-grandson of Henry Ford, backed an intense lobbying and advertising effort against a Senate proposal to raise fuel economy standards for the first time since the 1980's.

Some also say they sensed a shift in Mr. Ford's priorities when, in a recent television campaign, he spoke of his love of the outdoors in an ad promoting the vehicle environmentalists love to hate most: the S.U.V.

''My fear is that Bill Ford is showing his true stripes as just another short-sighted auto executive with no interest in the environment, our oil dependence, or the truth,'' said Daniel F. Becker, who monitors global warming and energy issues for the Sierra Club.

Mr. Ford declined requests for comment. But company officials say that Ford Motor has stood by its main commitments, including a pledge in 2000 to improve the fuel economy of its S.U.V.'s by 25 percent within five years. The company has said it aims to sell the first hybrid gasoline-electric S.U.V. -- a step toward fulfilling that promise -- in 2003. It is also undertaking an ambitious project to rebuild its huge River Rouge plant as an eco-friendly operation.

''What is the commitment we've made that we've backed away from?'' asked James G. Vella, Ford's vice president for corporate public affairs.

But even a few of the company's white-collar workers, in an internal message board, recently expressed discomfort with Ford Motor's role in the defeat of a proposal backed by Senators John Kerry and John McCain to raise fuel economy standards 50 percent by the 2015 model year.

''This is a victory for American big business, including Ford lobbying,'' read one message given to The New York Times by an employee who did not support the company's position. ''Fuel economy has improved hardly at all in 20 years.''

Now, environmentalists, embittered after the Senate defeat, are lining up against the man they once viewed as a potent ally. They say it will be difficult for Mr. Ford to lay claim to a green mantle if his company continues to adhere to the industry line on fighting fuel economy regulation. Ford's tangible record is undistinguished, they argue, because the fuel economy of its automotive fleet is roughly equivalent to vehicles built by General Motors, its main rival, and because Toyota Motor and Honda Motor are already selling environmentally friendly vehicles that use hybrid engines.

The heart of the anger is directed at the company's support for an advertising blitz in newspapers and radio stations across the country to sway lawmakers during the recent fuel economy debate. The ads claimed, among other things, that S.U.V.'s and pickups would be driven to extinction and farmers would have to use subcompact cars to tend their crops. Ford also drafted letters for its workers to send to Congress.

''Everybody had a lot of high hopes and optimism for what Bill Ford was doing at Ford,'' said Scott Stoermer, spokesman for the League of Conservation Voters. ''It's one thing to be opposed to it,'' he said of the Senate proposal, ''but it's quite another to personally ask your employees to lobby senators and to use arguments that you know are wrong.''

Environmentalists argue that the notion that the S.U.V. or pickup would be legislated out of existence is belied by the fact that Ford's planned hybrid Escape S.U.V., due in 2003, will get 40 miles a gallon, well above the standards in the Kerry-McCain proposal.

Industry lobbyists counter that vehicles like the Escape will be made in limited numbers and that the legislation would have made it far more expensive to build -- and for consumers to buy -- pickups and S.U.V's.

''I don't think anybody would argue that the Kerry bill wouldn't have the impact of reducing choice,'' said Martin B. Zimmerman, Ford's group vice president for corporate affairs.

One alliance of environmental groups and corporations, the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies, is now reviewing Ford's membership, as well as G.M.'s.

''The recent actions by Ford and General Motors on fuel economy standards have raised some serious questions about their sincerity,'' said Robert K. Massie, the group's executive director.

When Mr. Ford became chairman in 1999, he had an easier platform to make grand pronouncements. The company was prosperous, and, as chairman, he was not responsible for day-to-day operations.